I'm planning on doing my stretching during the day today, hopefully adding the SMR or Stick massage later.

Derek Maffett

2007-12-13

Greg, I think I understand the beginning of the oly lifts. Deadlift, scoop, shrug - but what exactly is the third pull? I know that the arms remain straight during the shrug, but when the arms bend, are they doing any work? Are the arms actually helping pull you under the barbell faster?

Greg Everett

2007-12-13

Yes, the arms are doing a great deal of work. The notion that the arms do not elevate the barbell at all is not entirely true - it's more of a coaching cue to discourage premature arm bending than a statement of fact.

Once the athlete has achieved maximal extension of the body while in contact with the platform, i.e. the legs, hips and possibly ankles are fully extended, the greatest accelerating force has been imparted to the bar. At this point, the athlete removes the pressure of the feet against the platform, but continues attempting to pull the barbell up - but because he/she is no longer driving against the platform, the result of that pulling on the bar will be that the athlete will go down and the bar up to degrees relative to their masses. That is, a heavier bar and lighter athlete will result in the bar moving very little and the athlete moving down a great deal. This is just the law of acceleration, the law of inertia, and the law of reciprocal actions at play.

If the athlete does not pull aggressively with the arms, he/she will not be able to get under the bar. Objects all fall to the earth under the force of gravity at the same rate irrespective of their masses--and the barbell's upward momentum will run dry and its upward travel will cease and reverse very quickly. The athlete clearly must travel a great distance to get under the bar, meaning he/she must travel at a speed greater than the bar is traveling down under the direction of gravity. so to rely on gravity is impossible.

I really need to stop missing days in the beginning of the week...it just makes me miss days at the end of the week. I'll cobble something together between Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays workout into one day. Urgh!

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